A blood collection, a blood transfusion and the like are performed by puncturing a blood vessel of a blood donor or a patient with a puncture device. Such a puncture device includes a needle tube with a sharp needle tip on a distal end, a hub connected to a proximal end part of the needle tube, and a tube connected to a proximal end part of the hub.
In a medical facility, contamination, infection, and the like through blood have been a problem. Especially, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and the like have been issues of public interest in a society. Thus, it is desired to actively prevent an erroneous puncture with a used puncture device.
Consequently, to prevent the erroneous puncture with a needle tip, the used puncture device is discarded with its needle tube and hub housed inside a protector and the like, so that the needle tip is not exposed, when a blood collection, a blood transfusion, and the like are finished.
For example, as the puncture device including such a protector, Patent Literature 1 describes a puncture device (medical needle device in the Literature) including a substantially cylindrical protector (shield tube in the Literature), a hub inserted into the shield tube to be movable in an axial direction and connected to a tube at a rear end part thereof, and a needle tube attached to a distal end part of the hub. A salient part is formed on an outer periphery of the distal end part of the hub. The salient part slides in a gate groove extended from a distal end of the shield tube to the vicinity of a rear end thereof in the axial direction. Thus, the needle tube is housed in the shield tube and the needle tip of the needle tube is not exposed.